Can’t make it to Aerie x Solstice in Times Square? That doesn’t mean you have to miss out! We are having yoga in select stores on the summer solstice on Saturday, June 24th.

Enjoy a FREE 1-hour yoga class at your local store or mall followed by a shopping party and light refreshments (details vary by store). Be sure to contact your local Aerie store to get the deets on their event!

Check out our Facebook to see if there’s an event happening near you! Celebrate solstice in your nearest Aerie store. Want to start shopping now? Shop this look here.

It’s no secret Aerie loves contemporary jewelry maker and girl boss, Julie Nolan. Her pieces are handmade from the heart. Read on to learn more about Julie and what makes her #AerieREAL.

Can you tell us a little about your brand and what inspired you to start making jewelry?

JN: I started making jewelry when I was a kid, probably about 8 years old, because it’s fun! I liked making beaded jewelry and friendship bracelets. I’d make necklaces and have my mom take them to her work to sell to her coworkers. I guess I’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit!

I started my brand, Julie Nolan Jewelry, around 2009 shortly after completing jewelry school in Manhattan. It’s probably not the right way to do things, but I didn’t start out with a business plan or anything like that. I just sort of hit the ground running, making pieces that I thought looked cool. If I were to try to stand on the outside and describe my work, I’d say that I make clean, subtle, pieces that you can wear everyday. You could wear my jewelry to the beach or to a fancy dinner. I get a lot of customers that say they never take my pieces off. To me that’s the greatest testament of love for my creations.

How does astrology inspire your designs?

JN: This is probably not the answer that you’re looking for, but I’m not really that into astrology. My knowledge of personality traits as they relate to star signs has grown considerably as a result of my Zodiac Constellation designs but I wasn’t some kind of yodeling astrologer going into it.

When I was a kid growing up in San Jose, CA I used to love to go to the Rosicrucian Museum. It’s a really beautiful spot near the Rose Garden area. The museum is filled with a strange and mysterious mix of Egyptian relics and alchemical texts and art from the middle ages. I was always fascinated by this place and it’s beguiling aesthetic.

Fast forward to the mid 2000’s in Brooklyn. My boyfriend (now husband) Pete brought home a book he bought from a street vendor in Williamsburg called The Lore and Lure of Outer Space. It was kind of an overview of ancient astronomy going back to the dawn of recorded history. Again, it had a lot of really cool illustrations from the Alchemical texts of Hermes Trismegistus and the ancient origins of astrology. In the book there was a series of plates taken from a turn-of-the-century Swiss Calendar. I looked at the book a lot for a few years before it dawned on me that the simple zodiac constellation designs would render really well as jewelry. I started selling them at the Holiday Market at Colombus Circle back in 2009 and they continue to be one of my most popular designs.

So to answer your question I’m more interested in the aesthetics of ancient astronomy than I am in Astrology, although I’m getting more and more sucked in as the years go by.

What is your astrological sign? What does that mean to you?

JN: I’m a Scorpio, and this means you either love me or are afraid of me. I will admit that I do relish being a Scorpio. Who wouldn’t want to be a fierce, powerful and creative force of nature? I certainly wouldn’t let astrology be a guiding force in my life but in this instance I’m proud to fit the textbook description of a Scorpio and I have been known to peruse AstologyZone.com from time to time (for fun).

What is your favorite piece of jewelry?

JN: It’s hard to have just one favorite piece, but if push came to shove I’d say my wedding band is my favorite piece of jewelry. It was the first ring I made all by myself from start to finish back when I was just starting out at Studio Jewelers in Manhattan.

My husband and I each found twigs at McCaren Park in Brooklyn and I cast them into Gold rings using the lost wax technique. I think it’s a really nice analogy for our relationship. We found something natural and beautiful in this great big dirty city and forged it into something permanent and valuable.

What advice do you have for other women entrepreneurs?

JN: The best advice that I can give other female entrepreneurs is to take classes. Not only do you have the opportunity to improve your skill set, but you also have the opportunity to meet other women who have the same interests as you. It’s really a win/win situation.

Also, I always tell my 8 year old daughter Violet to be nice to everybody. I think it’s important to treat other people nicely and with respect.

What makes you #AerieREAL?

JN: Well gee I don’t know.. I’m not perfect? And like a lot of women (and people in general) I’ve certainly felt shame about not having a body that meets up with what advertisers and common public opinion holds up to be “beautiful” or even normal for that matter. So hats off to you guys for using girls in your ads that are a little chubby, have subtle imperfections, or are just different looking than what’s been considered the “ideal” woman for the past 20 years or whatever. Not to mention that this “ideal” standard is so boring! Thanks for bringing some variety and interestingness into your advertising. Hopefully my daughter’s generation won’t have to think about this junk at all and can just be humans. I’m a woman with a singular aesthetic who likes making things. Thank you for considering me to be #AerieREAL.

Thanks to you, we reached our initial goal and we’ve raised $10,000 for the National Eating Disorders Association! Since March 20th, we’ve seen more than 10,000 of your amazing unretouched swim photos on social. And thanks to you, we’re still going! Post your unretouched swim photos with #AerieREAL and we’ll donate $1 (now up to $15K!) to NEDA.

Check out some of the 10,000 #AerieREAL girls who love the swim they’re in!

This time of year is the worst for being bombarded with messages about ‘beach bodies,’ ‘summer bodies’ and ‘bikini bodies.’ The thing is our bodies are beautiful and worthy of wearing whatever we want 365 days of the year and we do NOT need to change for a season.

All of these messages to make us feel like we have to look a certain way have been contrived to make us buy ‘fit tea’ or try a new slimming gadget or even buy a new belly blitzing DVD. When that’s not a reason to feel under pressure to look a certain way. If you love working out you do it for you and not because the media or society has told you you have to look a certain way to wear a bikini.

I will not be working out more or cutting calories to be ‘beach ready.’ The body I already have, I respect and value all year round and know it’s worthy to be on the beach. Being on the beach is about enjoyment, living in the moment, feeling the sand between your toes and the warm sun on your skin, having fun with friends and loved ones.That’s what I want you all to be celebrating this summer– your freedom to know you are good enough just as you are.

I hope you enjoy these videos! We wanted to create something to be different from so many campaigns about ‘summer bodies’ and encourage you to have fun every day of the year in your imperfectly perfect bodies,

Keep your workout gear clean with our DIY yoga mat spray! Tea tree oil is a natural antiseptic, and lavender oil is a known aromatic used to relieve tension and calm nerves. When combined, the two create a safe and clean spray that will keep your mat clean and your mind clear! Read on to see how to make your own DIY yoga mat spray.

“In my years since college, I have gone through a major inner transformation — from feeling like I had to dress myself to feel confident, to learning to embrace + celebrate my body whether I’m naked or in one of my favorite bikinis! After college, as I started my business, I did a lot of soul searching and began to find that I wasn’t focused on just being the ‘pretty’ girl that I wanted to be when I was young. As young girls, many of us are focused on our outer appearances to feel confident and beautiful. Now, I realized I wanted to be the successful entrepreneur, the empowering friend, the smart woman, the risk taker — the vibrantly alive soul. With this realization, I found how little my body type, shape or size was tied into ANY of my goals. . . It wasn’t an overnight switch, but instead a conscious effort to understand that my worth wasn’t tied to the way my body looked and also, that women I found beautiful, sexy and dazzling didn’t all look one certain way. They were different sizes, skin colors, body types and ages.

Moving to Hawai’i to has been a huge part of my shift towards body positivity and self love! Since moving here, I have learned what true beauty is, why size doesn’t matter (even in a cheeky bikini) and how to be truly confident in your skin! Now, I find myself sharing pep talks on my Instagram because I see such a need for the conversation that Aerie is having with the #AerieREAL campaign! We need less body shaming and more self love. More understanding that YES our bodies are beautiful, but also, that our worth doesn’t equate to our outside appearance.”

“Before moving to Hawai’i, I would find myself dressing my body in order to feel confident or thinking ‘I would look good in that if I didn’t have these love handles.’ Yet here in Hawai’i, after a lot of self-discovery, I’ve found myself seeing my body not as a defining factor of who I am as a person, but instead as the vessel that allows me to live life; to experience so much. So next time you’re putting on a bikini or slipping into a pair of hiking shorts – instead of wishing that your body didn’t look the way it does, remember to be thankful that your body is enabling you to try surfing for the first time, or hike that mountain or experience whatever we’re about to experience. I find with women across the board: women who are smaller, plus size women, women who are in between, women who are aging, or new moms — every woman has imperfections and something they don’t view as perfect. And guess what? That’s okay. We’re humans and we’re beautiful — in this moment — the way we look + feel RIGHT NOW. When you make the mental shift to view your body through a lens of gratitude, our cellulite, love handles or lack of a booty seem to fade away.”

“Two years ago, when we packed up all of our belongings and moved to this little island in the sea, I had a wildly different perspective on size and the role it played in the value of my body or myself. When we first moved here we would frequent the beach, still feeling like we were on vacation; I was still in complete awe and kept thinking, ‘Do we really live here?’ (YES, Elana. HELL YES you do.) On those beach trips, I would notice women in cheeky bikinis that weren’t perfectly tiny or sculpted – SHOCKING! I was so inspired by their “courage” because I always felt that to dawn a swimsuit and feel comfortable you had to have zero cellulite and have tiny little thighs. Swimwear never made me feel comfortable, let alone beautiful! Women in Hawai’i wear what they want with pride in their bodies and it’s been absolutely inspiring! Experiencing their confidence first hand first made my smile, then started sinking in more and more. I started looking at my body differently and started to love my curves more, my smaller chest, my imperfect but perfectly strong legs. Everything around me told me that size does not matter, that you’re beautiful just the way you are. I started the inner work that it takes to have outer confidence!

I thought to be sexy you had to look a certain way, act a certain way, dress a certain way. You had to look like the sculpted, made up, photoshopped images that you see across glossy magazine pages. Hawai’i has given me a whole different perspective on what ‘sexy’ looks like. It’s made me realize sexy is strength, it’s courage, it’s fully owning your story and being proud of who you are. Sexy looks like women celebrating themselves, inside and out, and rocking the bikini now (not five pounds from now)! Having a good sense of humor, not taking yourself too seriously, quick wit — this is sexy. I find it sexy to show up to life with confidence!”

“Beautiful women are happy women…not the other way around! We’ve heard this messaging in advertising but after being on this island for many moons now, Hawai’i has truly opened my eyes and enlightened me on this. When I first moved here, I would only notice gals on the beach who had these tiny, fit, perky bodies.I would look down at my very friendly thighs, always rubbing up on one another, and my soft belly that rolled when I sat down – not hating what I saw, but not owning it as fully beautiful. Slowly, beach trip after beach trip, I started to notice something different. Something incredible. I started to notice that the most beautiful women were the happy ones. They were the girls splashing around in the waves with their sisters, not glued to their phone. Or the mamas playing with their little ones as the waves kissed their ankles. Or the women jumping up to spike the volleyball back where it came from. The greatest beauty on the beach was those fully engaging in life! And they came in all sizes, ages, colors and body types.

Hawai’i has taught me many things, but mostly, that life is about so much more than our imperfections. There is so much to experience and explore in this world and deciding to start your journey to self love RIGHT NOW is our key to it all! Don’t deny yourself another day of joy, of acceptance, of confidence. You are an incredible, beautiful woman inside and out! You deserve to be celebrated! So here I am, cheersing you from the big island — encouraging you to take a lesson from the beautiful islands of Hawai’i. You are worthy of self love + respect right here, right now!”

Post your unretouched swim photos with #AerieREAL & we’ll donate $1 (up to $15K) to the National Eating Disorder Association for every new share!